1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computers, and more particularly to a mechanism incorporating an improved methodology for performing a branch trace in a computing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers and computer systems are found in a variety of settings in today's society. Computing environments and networks may be found at home, at work, at school, in government, and in other settings. In many computer systems, an operating system (OS) helps to share computer resources (processor, memory, disk space, network bandwidth, etc.) between users and application programs. Operating systems may also control access to the computer system in a security-related function.
In today's increasingly competitive marketplace, quality is of the utmost concern. Users' expectations are high and thus the reliability of hardware/software is especially important. Customers do not tolerate mistakes and the later a defect is discovered, the more costly it can prove to the manufacturer. Typically therefore, software developers implement a rigorous testing regime in order to ensure that a product or system is fully operational and consistently performs according to its functional specification, before it is made available to the public.